A MAJOR rival of Walgreens has closed one of its popular locations on the West Coast as a retail apocalypse sweeps the nation.
The pharmacy competitor, known as The Bartell Drug Company (Bartell Drugs) and owned by Rite Aid, has closed another store in Seattle, Washington.
The South Lake Union Bartell Drugs, located at 1001 Mercer St., closed on Wednesday.
Bartell Drugs, which has 2,214 branches across the US, added the new closure to a long list of other stores that are now shuttered as Rite Aid deals with losses, a decreased stock value, and a tough pharmacy, according to The Seattle Times.
The closure of the South Lake Union location marks the fourth closure within the past 12 months.
The other Bartell Drugs stores that closed were the company's flagship store in the Chinatown International District, as well as a location in Ballard and the University District.
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In a recent statement to Supermarket News, Rite Aid, which is based in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, said: "Like all retail businesses, we regularly review each of our locations to ensure we are meeting the needs of our customers, communities and overall business.
"A decision to close a store is one we take very seriously and is based on a variety of factors including business strategy, lease and rent considerations, local business conditions and viability, and store performance.
"We review every neighborhood to ensure our customers will have access to health services, be it at Bartell Drugs or a nearby pharmacy, and we work to seamlessly transfer their prescriptions so there is no disruption of services.
"We also strive to transfer associates to other Bartell Drugs or Rite Aid locations where possible."
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The company often undergoes store performance evaluations, and more so when a store's lease agreements are set to end, Matthew Schroeder, Rite Aid's chief financial officer and executive vice president, reportedly said in a recent business call.
Among Bartell Drugs' 2,214 Rite Aid stores across the US, there are 63 Washington locations after three of the closures.
Rite Aid spokesperson Alicja Wojczyk reportedly added that since January 2022, about 195 Rite Aid stores have been closed across the country.
The nearly 200 stores span 17 US states.
Meanwhile, Rite Aide, which is ranked third in the industry, falls behind CVS and Walgreens.
And following Bartell Drugs' 2020 acquisition, which came after the company transferred 1,932 stores and three distribution centers to Walgreens, Rite Aid stocks have dropped significantly by 84%.
The thousands of stores were transferred for $4.4billion following a merger that failed.
Now, Rite Aid is considered to be worth $86milllion, $9milllion less than the price Bartell was purchased for.
Deutsche Bank managing director George Hill says that pharmacies and drugstores across the country have been struggling after the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Hill explained: "There’s some 60,000 pharmacies in the United States. It’s a very fragmented market."
He said Rite Aid's troubles "tells you a lot about the continually falling value that is attributed to pharmacy."
